Experience with FORMTECH insulated forms?????

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

I am an aging female who wants to build a home MORTGAGE FREE and to build as much of it by myself as possible. Weight of materials is a very important consideration to me. I would like to have an Earthship and would not have the physical strength to lift tires and buckets of dirt up very high.

Yesterday at a Home Show I saw small demonstration walls built with styrofoam blocks supported with plastic separators and metal pins. Now, that looked like something I can do! The demonstrator told me that ordinary cement trucks cannot do the pour, so a special truck has to come quite a distance, but at least this is available.

In addition, I want to build an octagonal home. Most contracotrs and others I have talked with fall apart at this concept, but the way the formtech blocks appear, it seems to me that if the angle could be structured, this might be the best technique for building my octagon.

There is a small (20 foot) cordwood octagonal home featured in the latest TMEN. I believe I could do a facing over the exterior styrofoam with cordwood rounds.

Sure would appreciate any suggestions and, in particular, advice from persons who have actually built something with FORMTECH materials.

Thanks in advance!

-- Elizabeth Petofi (tengri@cstone.net), March 19, 2000

Answers

Elizabeth: Don't have actual experience myself, but my brother and sister-in-law framed their basement with formtech a couple years ago. It was the easiest way for the two of them to do it, and while my husband and I helped them put up the forms one weekend, that was as far as our actual experience went. They thought it was great, and it has held up well. No problems getting the cement truck to their local, which is a small town on the Colorado/Nebraska border. As far as whether it is less expensive, I don't know, but definitely easier if you are planning to do this yourself. What area of the country are you considering building in? GOOD LUCK, Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), March 19, 2000.

There was an excellent article about these forms in my Sunday paper today..I'll pull it out and keep it by the computer for awhile..Please e-mail me your address if you'd like me to send it along to you.. Good luck!

-- Lesley Chasko (martchas@gateway.net), March 19, 2000.

My parents built a very large basement home using the foam forms, and yes it takes a pumper truck to make the pour. My advice: Don't store the forms out in the sunshine while you are working on the project. The sunlight degrades the foam. It took so long for the work on my parents home, that the older sections of the foam had some blowouts during the pour (the foam broke and spilled concrete all over inside the house) One of the blowouts was on the bottom course when the wall was poured almost to the top. When all that concrete pours out of the wall, there is nothing you can do about it. After it all settles down, then they repaired the hole with plywood and started pouring the wall all over again. It also took a lot of lumber to re-inforce the corners. However, now that it is done, the house is very warm!

-- CC (car-col@usa.net), March 26, 2000.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ